Whether you are a competing student, a teacher, a parent or an interested member of the public, we invite you to the attend your state’s National Geographic Bee on March 27, 2015. Here you will find all information needed to prepare for and enjoy a day of exciting academic competition among the grade 4-8 school champions of the state. Attend the state Bee to see who will go on to compete in the national championship at National Geographic in Washington, D.C.

I was just informed that our proposal to receive a Giant Traveling Map from National Geographic was accepted! Two years ago we had the South America map come to Rhode Island, and last year the Giant Traveling map of Africa came to the Ocean state and many schools found it to be a way to make an event of it. We’ll be receiving the map of North America that comes with an excellent set of resources on how to interactively teach, explore, learn and play with this specific map as a part of your curriculum. This map will soon be coming to Rhode Island; it will be available for schools and teachers to use from March 21st to April 19th. The Alliance wants to make this accessible to as many RIGEA members as possible. For schools with 4 RIGEA members, this map can be rented for a free of charge for two days (if you are interested in more days, let me know). Remember that it’s free for teachers, administrators and parents to sign up to become RIGEA members—consider this your chance to recruit them for a good cause for your school AND the Alliance. For schools without 4 RIGEA members, they can still rent the map for $200 per day, but I have faith in your recruiting skills.

SCHEDULING THE MAP:

For those interested, please send your request to rigea@ric.edu with the following information

Include the subject line “Scheduling Giant Map”

Select day(s) on or between March 21-April 19 that you would like to schedule the map with at least two alternative dates.

List the names of Alliance members (or future Alliance members) at your school. This can be a “work in progress.” You can sign them up yourself (with their consent of course).

The name and address of your school.

Contact information for the person who will be responsible for transporting the map to the subsequent school (phone and email).

Aerial video footage of Rhode Island in the US. Part of the Skyworks HD aerials video collection. SkyWorks films all over the world, including Wales, South Africa and Qatar…but I’m partial to their work right here in in the Ocean State.

This NY Times article is a great exploration of the economic geography of baseball and the place-based traditions that are rooted in having a team to call your own. There is a lot of anger in Pawtucketat the news that the team is planning to leave McCoy stadium. This isn’t just a devastating financial blow to the Pawtucket community; for decades, Pawtucket could hang there hat on being home to the PawSox and that communal identity was one of the defining distinctions between Pawtucket and Central Falls. Now it’s just another struggling town. How will this impact Pawtucket and Providence neighborhoods? What if the Red Sox affiliate left the state of Rhode Island entirely for, say Fall River or New Bedford? How would that impact the Ocean State?

“Last month was the snowiest February on record, with 31.8 inches falling in just 28 days, according to the National Weather Service. That was ridiculously close to 2 feet — 23.3 inches to be exact — more than the usual snowfall in February. For December through February, the total snowfall at T.F. Green Airport was 58.3 inches, the third-snowiest winter season on record.”

MORE STATS:

— 25.6 inches of snow fell in January, the fifth-snowiest on record.

— The average low temperature for February was 8.5 degrees, more than 15 degrees below normal. The average high was 28.3 degrees, which was 12 degrees below normal.

There may be a counterintuitive explanation for the deep freeze that hit New England this winter: The rapidly warming Arctic is causing big disruptions in the jet stream, which carries weather across North America. Is this the worst winter you’ve experienced?